THE HAPPY INVALID.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5496, 4 November 1929, Page 4

THE HAPPY INVALID.

THE CONQUEST OF SELF. “There is no disputing the fact that umbrs of men ad art and women ad numbers of men and women carrying burdens of sickness, never to be laid down on this side of the grave, are intensely happy, incomprehensible as this may be to the person in normal circumstances, who is often intensely miserable,” says Mr Leonard B, Smith in. a contribution, “Written from an Invalid’s Chair,” to the “Daily Chronicle.” “Undoubtedly the secret of happiness is achievement—conquest. When, a man has finished digging his garden he is happy for a time. The author is happy when he has written the concluding sentence of his book ; the business man when he has negotiated a successful deal; and the sportsman when he has created a fresh record. There is no happiness without achievement, and no acchievement without conquest. Then where lies the opportunity for the man stretched in a spinal carriage, or for him who must grope his way through continual night ? It may be that the sole task allowed him is the conquest of self—the struggle to rise, above affliction which is ever striving to render him irritable and morose. It is a task calling for all his mettle, and the reward of victory is the happiness at which others may well wonder. Achievement is essential; and many a sufferer has built up a spirit so indomitable that he has found an occupation. Within the scope of his limitations. Such a triumph must bring intense happiness seeing that he has, of his own determination and perseverance, converted uselessness into usefulness. Some of the world’s greatest work has been done by such | as these.” 1